Costel Pantilimon, again preferred to Joe Hart in goal, had earlier saved twice from Jonjo Shelvey to do his hopes of continuing in the side no harm.

When Negredo was fouled outside the area and got up to clip home the resulting free-kick after eight minutes, Swansea fans might have expected a repeat of last week's demolition against Spurs.

But the Welsh side, who looked overrun in the opening minutes, responded well and confidently took the game to the hosts.

Both sides had penalty appeals as Pablo Hernandez claimed to be pulled back by Martin Demichelis and Sergio Aguero went down under a Jose Canas challenge but referee Mark Clattenburg was convinced by neither.

City's second finally came just before the hour as Yaya Toure strode forward in trademark fashion to find Nasri inside the area.

The Frenchman still had much to do but the defence could not touch him as he ran across goal and fired low into the bottom left corner.

City almost had a third when Toure found Aguero and Swansea's half-clearance fell to the inrushing Pablo Zabaleta but the full-back shot over.

But there was little respite for the Swans and Zabaleta instead turned to a creator's role by rushing onto a James Milner throughball and pulling back for Nasri to tuck home after 77 minutes.